Sri Lanka off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan may be losing friends fast after accusing Australia's top pace bowlers of being "chuckers", opening batsman Matthew Hayden said on Tuesday.
Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie bowled illegal deliveries, Muralitharan said in a Melbourne radio interview on Monday.
"I think they (the trio) are probably a little bit disappointed with the reactions," Australia's Hayden told reporters in Brisbane ahead of Thursday's first Test against New Zealand.
"Sticks and stones kind of stuff from Murali in the papers is not going to get Murali any favours in world cricket."
Muralitharan's doosra, a leg spinner bowled from the front of the hand, was outlawed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in May after a report concluded the Sri Lankan bent his arm during delivery and so threw the ball.
At present, spinners are permitted five degrees of bend, medium pacers 7.5 and fast bowlers 10. Muralitharan's doosra was initially measured at around 14 degrees.
However, last week an ICC bowling committee recommended that all bowlers be allowed to straighten their arms by up to 15 degrees, prompting Muralitharan to say he had been put under unfair scrutiny because of his haul of 532 Test wickets.
McGrath, Gillespie and Lee were all bowling with between 12 and 15 degrees of flexion, Muralitharan said.
"So what about them then, the Australian players?" added Test cricket's second leading wicket-taker, who has twice been called for "throwing" in Australia and refused to join Sri Lanka's tour of that country earlier this year.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said on Monday it was unfair on individual players for their names to be used in emotional public debate which does not take account of the complex science behind what the ICC is examining.
